Insurance carriers will soon be billed by Lockport Fire Department for emergency services rendered at auto accidents in the city.
Under the emergency service cost recovery policy, adopted by the Common Council on Wednesday, the department will bill insurers $150 for minor accidents that the fire department responds to.
The department will bill $375 for major, non-injury accidents, including those that involve spills from tank leaks, fire hazard precautions and vehicle disentanglement.
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Insurers will be billed $400 for accidents that involve emergency medical services or removing occupants from vehicles. Crashes that involve treatment of multiple patients or removal using hydraulic or power tools will result in $600 bills. And hazardous material control, such as cleaning up chemical spills form commercial vehicles, will cost insurers $1,000. Suppressing a vehicle fire will cost $300.
City officials say the policy could help cover the cost of implementing a recent arbitration decision mandating Lockport increase its minimum staffing from six to nine firefighters per shift. The fire department had nine-member minimum manning until 2014, when the city laid off 12 firefighters and eliminated LFD ambulance service to cut costs amid a fiscal crisis. The firefighters union filed a grievance over the matter, arguing the reduction violated its labor contract. The arbitrator agreed with the union.
To comply with the decision, the city would have to hire 12 new firefighters and retain four others whose positions are funded by a grant that will expire next year, at a cost of about $1.3 million. That spending increase would trigger a 10.5 percent tax rate hike, according to Finance Director Scott Schrader.
Mayor Michelle Roman said in a statement Thursday that the new policy has generated hundreds of thousands in new revenue for nearby municipalities.
Later in the statement, Roman reiterated her proposal to phase in the new firefighters over several years while creating new revenue sources, such as returning ambulance service to the fire department. The firefighters union would have to agree with Roman's plan.
"This will allow the city to abide by the arbitrator's decision while mitigating the costs to the taxpayers," Roman said in the statement. "Ultimately, the Fire Board and the Common Council have not taken action on my plan or on a plan of their own."
Instead, last week Roman directed City Attorney Allen Miskell to appeal the arbitration decision in State Supreme Court.
"Since there has been no action to responsibly implement the arbitrator's decision, we are left with two options: appeal or immediately hire 12 new firefighters," Roman said. "We simply cannot afford to hire 12 firefighters right now without an economically responsible plan to generate revenue from their service."
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